Cucumbers and Pole Beans

Along the north side of bed A I dig in three inches of compost amended with a couple metal cans of organic fertilizer and pound in three metal fence post  angled a little to the north to  support a section of fence. Around the beginning of May, I plant pole beans on the north side of the fence about four inches apart and a week or so later I will plant cucumbers on the south side of the leaning fence, i.e. about the same time as I plant the zucchini in front of them. I believe cucumbers can take a little more shade than the other members of the cucurbit family, especially from the afternoon sun. They wilt a lot and most varieties turn bitter if they get too much heat. The zucchini should shade the roots of the cucumbers along with deep straw mulch. The cucumbers will climb up among the pole beans and get a little extra shade from the bean leaves. I will choose a variety of cucumber known for not turning bitter in the heat; keeping them picked daily and picking them before they get large as well as giving them plenty of water will delay or avoid them from turning bitter. Cucumber bitterness attracts the cucumber beetle, so planting non bitter varieties is actually a pest control; because the cucumber beetle infects the plants with disease, non bitter varieties are also disease control. Use row covers to protect cucumbers until female flowers appear.

Some books suggest planting cucumbers among sun flowers, but my experience has been that sunflowers have super root systems which suck up all the ground water. Sunflowers are one tough plant that can outcompete the other vegetables. Cucumbers, tomatoes and zucchini are all mostly water. If I do plant a couple sunflowers, just for beauty’s sake and to attract bee pollinators, (which they do exceedingly well), then those sunflowers will be isolated outside of the garden beds.

Japanese beetles really love pole bean leaves but mostly attack the highest leaves. Japanese beetles drop before they fly so in the early morning you can hold a pan of soapy water beneath an infested leaf and tap the leaf and the beetles will fall into the soapy water. In addition to providing an occasional mess of beans, the pole beans provide the cucumbers with something to climb on. We have a good recipe for freezer pickles that we enjoy year round in addition to summer tomato, onion and cucumber salads. Because the plants in bed A are so prolific and have so many culinary uses, a single 3’x 12’ vegetable plot can provide lots of food.